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OUTLAW 09
06-30-2017, 09:13 PM
Moderator's Note

A new thread for these topics. The earlier thread, which covered January-June 2017, had 1048 posts, with 63k views:Russian Info, Cyber and Disinformation (Jan-June 2017) (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/Russian%20Info,%20Cyber%20and%20Disinformation%20% 28Jan-June%202017%29)

Update July 9th 2017: This thread clearly overlaps with others, especially the allegations that Russia has interfered / intervened in the US election process and a large number (124 plus) of posts were added here instead of being posted in the Trump thread - as that thread was closed for a review. Those posts will now be moved to the Trump thread, which will remain closed(ends).

The last time Holder tweeted something like this was the day Comey was fired.

Many in D.C. are speculating that something big is on its way.

OUTLAW 09
07-01-2017, 11:19 AM
The same APT that stands behind #BlackEnergy (Prykarpattyaoblenergo fame) is responsible for the #Petya attack.

APT 28.......Russian state sponsored GRU hacking group....

OUTLAW 09
07-01-2017, 07:35 PM
Kremlin propaganda outlet @SputnikInt
will now air in DC on a radio station that used to play bluegrass music. Because it's 2017.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/340292-russian-radio-takes-over-local-dc-station

davidbfpo
07-01-2017, 08:44 PM
A new thread for these topics. The earlier thread, which covered January-June 2017, had 1048 posts, with 63k views:Russian Info, Cyber and Disinformation (Jan-June 2017) (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/Russian Info, Cyber and Disinformation (Jan-June 2017))

A small number of posts may be moved here in a moment, so this post is likely not to be the first post.

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2017, 10:05 AM
This is an example of the automated Twitter bot trolls working in Germany and it is exactly the same way in US even using English...

Wow!
This really works.
An automated #Kremlin troll network reacts to certain terms on @twitter with propaganda replies.

NOTE...there have been 1.2M automated non human bots ADDED to Trump's twitter account as "Followers" in the last 21 days......

BUT the Russian AI is not working as well as they planned it would..as there have been some examples of automated bots replying to an automated bot....

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2017, 10:12 AM
First results of the bot fishing: bots just search keywords ИГИЛ, СБУ, НАТО and post spam replies, no matter what's source tweet's language

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2017, 12:54 PM
EU Mythbusters

@EUvsDisinfo
More disinformation about EU: a reaction of pro-Kremlin outlets to extended sanctions against Russia #Disinforeview:
http://mailchi.mp/euvsdisinfo/dr74#

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2017, 04:39 PM
Russia was behind global cyber attack, Ukraine says

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-cyber-attack-ukraine-petya-telebots-blackenergy-sbu-cadbury-a7819501.html#

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2017, 07:04 PM
Veterans Today, which partners with Russian and Iranian propaganda media, has a subtle message.

What is a US Vets group doing working with Russian and Iranian media outlets.....

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2017, 12:44 PM
First results of the bot fishing: bots just search keywords ИГИЛ, СБУ, НАТО and post spam replies, no matter what's source tweet's language


Russia attacks Ukraine. @loogunda translates witness accounts. Russian cyberwar hits @loogunda … @Twitter helpless

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2017, 04:49 PM
Shipping giant Maersk brings systems back online after cyber attack: http://reut.rs/2szi5Mp

1500 applications were knocked off line......

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2017, 05:00 PM
.@InVID_EU releases its browser extension for verifying images, videos on the web, Insta, FB, YT, Twitter & others
https://goo.gl/Fo8i73

Full Fact has been awarded $500,000 to build two world-leading automated factchecking tools
https://fullfact.org/blog/2017/jun/awarded-500000-omidyar-network-open-society-foundations-automated-factchecking/

FB no longer lets you edit headline or pic in link preview before sharing. Feature was being abused to post misinfo:
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2017/06/27/API-Change-Log-Modifying-Link-Previews …

Internal docs shed light on algorithms Facebook’s censors use to differentiate #HateSpeech & political expression
https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-hate-speech-censorship-internal-documents-algorithms?utm_content=buffer558a8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2017, 05:39 PM
Useful analyses on Petya, the camouflaged wiper targeting Ukraine

https://tisiphone.net/2017/06/28/why-notpetya-kept-me-awake-you-should-worry-too/ … https://medium.com/@thegrugq/pnyetya-yet-another-ransomware-outbreak-59afd1ee89d4?source=linkShare-8c278323b47c-1498684536 … https://securelist.com/expetrpetyanotpetya-is-a-wiper-not-ransomware/78902/ …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2017, 05:58 PM
NEW: Despite hacking charges, U.S. tech industry fought to keep ties to Russia spy service
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-tech-insight-idUSKBN19L10I

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2017, 06:44 PM
Kaspersky Chief Says Willing To Allow U.S. Officials To Examine Products' Source Code
https://www.rferl.org/a/kaspersky-lab-cybersecurity-us-russia/28591824.html …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2017, 06:48 PM
Gitmo detainees watch Russian propaganda, courtesy of the US military.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/gitmo-detainees-get-russian-propaganda-from-us-military …

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 06:26 AM
Kaspersky Chief Says Willing To Allow U.S. Officials To Examine Products' Source Code
https://www.rferl.org/a/kaspersky-lab-cybersecurity-us-russia/28591824.html …

what many do not understand about IT security and hacking and or malware attacks...they are designed usually to exploit weaknesses in the coding of a software product.....

In millions of lines of coding there is always a deficient line or two that allow exploitations against those specific code weaknesses....

This also goes for anti viral software.....REMEMBER when the latest Russian cyber attack on Ukraine hit...ONLY 16 anti viral products actually detected it out of a tested leading 25 AV products......

THIS goes also for Kaspersky.....ALL software has back doors...and I literally mean ALL....that is what hackers are always looking for to include nation state security services....

THIS response by Russia concerning Kaspersky is extremely interesting as they have never responded in this way if for say Rosneft or Gazprom loses a deal...........

REMEMBER in the Kaspersky cyber lab there are FSB liaison officers..one was recently arrested for allegedly spying for the US.....AND Kaspersky has all the end user individual computer data as it provides support for those legally purchased copes of their software.

Russia Threatens Retaliation If Pentagon Bans Kaspersky Software

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-30/russia-threatens-retaliation-if-pentagon-bans-kaspersky-software-j4k2inwq


Any “unilateral political sanctions” by the U.S. may prompt a response from Russia, whose government systems use “a huge proportion of American software and hardware solutions in the IT sphere, even in very sensitive areas,” Nikiforov said in an interview on Friday. He declined to identify U.S. software products that may be affected by any reciprocal sanctions.

REMEMBER Russia has forced all US IT companies to provide them all backdoors and source coding in order to do business in Russia...WHICH they all complied with including say Cisco and IBM....

So when the US does he same the Russians flip out.....WHY......

Article on this was previously posted here...

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 06:59 AM
Core element of Russian non linear warfare.....Russian doctrine from 2014...


The first and second phases consist of non-military asymmetric warfare. They include information warfare, psychological, ideological, diplomatic, and economic measures, but also special operations conducted to mislead political and military leaders. Coordinated measures are carried out by diplomatic channels, media, top government and military agencies; they include leaking false data, orders, directives, and instructions. The third phase’s objective is to consolidate the first two, by intimidating, deceiving, or bribing government and military officers, with the objective of making them abandon their duties.

Taken from George Kennan 1948....


Political warfare is the logical application of Clausewitz's doctrine in time of peace. In broadest definition,
political warfare is the employment of all the means at a nation's command, short of war, to achieve its national
objectives. Such operations are both overt and covert. They range from such overt actions as political alliances, economic measures (as ERP--the Marshall Plan), and "white" propaganda to such covert operations as clandestine support of "friendly" foreign elements, "black" psychological warfare and even encouragement of underground resistance in hostile states.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 07:08 AM
Putin propagandists pick up ex-Pentagon PSYOPpers
by Dr Waller
February 14, 2016

http://acmeofskill.com/2016/02/putin-propagandists-pick-up-ex-pentagon-psyoppers/


Zlatko Kovach is one of them. Just blocks from the White House, the 48-year-old editor runs the Washington office of Sputnik, which styles itself as a straight news service that aspires to compete with the Associated Press and Reuters. Three of Kovach’s fellow ex-Pentagon contract workers joined him. Two have moved on, but Sputnik is actively recruiting others.
Kovach, a naturalized American citizen, doesn’t see his move as unpatriotic but rather as economically justified. “Despite the big superpower relations, the media has developed in such a way as that’s the nature of the market,” he said. “It isn’t harming the U.S.”
Sputnik is part of a news and information outlet known in the United States as RT, the initials of its parent entity, Russia Today, which operates under the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media in Moscow. With State Department approval, RT opened the Washington office of Sputnik last year just as civilian contractors who shaped U.S. military messaging overseas were put out of work when Congress shut down most of a $22 million program.
They practiced what used to be called psychological operations, or PSYOP, a name that was changed to something more benign-sounding in the Pentagon’s alphabet soup of acronyms: MISO, for “military information support operations.”

NOTE...Sputnik and Russia today have yearly budgets in excess of 1.5B USDs and are hard core Russian government 400% owned propaganda media outlets in over 128 countries....

Sputnik just purchased a former Blue Grass radio station in DC....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 07:43 AM
This is an interesting article in that it has been stated that the cyber attack in Ukraine came via this particular software update.....

Which actually flies in the face of confirmed actual hacking events that occurred shortly after a car bomb killed a UAF SOF COL of the military Intelligence...which for some strange reason has been largely glossed over by IT media and MSM media....

Family firm in Ukraine says it was not responsible for cyber attack

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-attack-ukraine-software-idUSKBN19O2DK?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews


"What has been established in these days, when no one slept and only worked? We studied and analysed our product for signs of hacking - it is not infected with a virus and everything is fine, it is safe," said Olesya, managing partner at Intellect Service.
"The update package, which was sent out long before the virus was spread, we checked it 100 times and everything is fine."
Little known outside Ukrainian accounting circles, M.E.Doc is an everyday part of life at around 80 percent of companies in Ukraine. The software allows its 400,000 clients to send and discuss financial documents between internal departments, as well as file them with the Ukrainian state tax service.

NOTE
1. the update in question was sent out long before the attack
2. normally updates are tested on a variety of in-house computer systems in order to ensure there are not compatibility problems and if the malware was in the update it would have then triggered on at least one of those test systems....
3. does not explain just how then it spend to such companies as Maresk shipping that did not use the Ukrainian software....
4. AND more importantly the entire 400,000 customer base was not inflected if it had been the single update that was responsible....

MS really needs to explain just how this NSA exploit was able to spread so quickly even on MS machines that had the MAR 2017 security updates to hinder just such an attack...

There is far more to this attack than is being publicly written about....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 07:53 AM
Reference the Russian cyber attack on Ukraine....I am actually waiting for the Ukrainian hacker group Ukraine Cyber Army which has deep ties inside the Ukrainian cyber company world to post something but it is silent as well on their front....

When they post something then we might actually know what is ongoing and real.....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 07:55 AM
SPIEGEL ONLINE

@SPIEGELONLINE
Der Verfassungsschutz warnt vor einer Manipulation der Bundestagswahl:
http://spon.de/ae0Qh

The German Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution (like UK MI5) is warning about possible election interference....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 08:03 AM
NOW we are getting closer to the "truth"...on the Russian cyber attack on Ukraine....

Our research in the middle of the attack pointed cleanly to a total of six Russian based servers involved in this attack...four were disabled.....

Russian media runs story of possibly Petya being created in Russia.
https://twitter.com/vasilymaximov/status/882143832820912129#

Новые Известия‏#
@newizvestia
Follow

Вирус-вымогатель Petya мог быть создан в России
https://newizv.ru/news/tech/04-07-2017/virus-vymogatel-petya-mog-byt-sozdan-v-rossii?utm_source=communities&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=communities_1mi#…
#новости

Normally if in fact this was a true criminal ransomware attack there would have been some kind of chatter on the deep dark net blogs about "something new in the way of ransomware"...BUT there was absolutely nothing....silence and that alone is unusual.....

So the ransomware appearance of the attack was simply a well designed camouflage....as was the "apparent sloppiness of the coding"....which was not sloppy at all.....

WHAT is far more important and has not been written about is the fact that the malware carried LSADump which is a hacker tool designed to collect passwords and domain servers and feed that info back to the control servers which in fact happened thus providing the necessary data for future successful attacks using that data...

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 08:09 AM
Maersk could lose nearly $450m due to last week's cyber attack
http://www.cityam.com/267762/danish-shipping-giant-maersk-could-lose-nearly-450m-due#

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 08:33 AM
Why do I focus so much on Twitter....for a number of reasons....it is global in reach and depth.....it is the favorite social media outlet for Trump supporters and voters along with blogsites.....and it is now being used much as hacking is used to spam...to attack, to hide who is attacking you....and with 15% of Americans actually using it...it can and is in fact an info warfare tool of first quality...and a lot of the accounts are automated botnets controlled from outside the US...AND for some strange reason many Trump voters feel it speaks the "truth" that MSM does not.....

AND it is the playground for the alt right ie white nationalists, white supremacists, neo Nazi's and ultra right inside the US and Europe to include Russia.....and they feed off of each other with "conspiracies" and fake news narratives all designed to re-enforce their own beliefs... and to "win over" others.....

Another favorite social media playground for the alt right ie white nationalists and ultra right is Reddit.....

Right now there are roughly 45M non human existing bot accounts on twitter with twitter doing nothing about it.....Trump has a total of 19M non human account "Followers" and has added 1.2M non human bot "Followers" just in the last four weeks....

REMEMBER at least Fb has openly for the first time admitted they were misused and abused in this proTrump world on social media by those that knew how to manipulate FB....

Twitter has not come forward and admitted that as well...maybe that is because one of the largest single investors is a Russian oligarch to the tune of a total of over 1B USDs....on several buy-ins.

AND that Russian oligarch sits in Dublin controlling European operations where Twitter really is lax in their own Terms of Service violations especially when being committed by Russian trolls and or bots....

FB argues it is improving but not really.....

EXAMPLE of a violation that was reported but not shut down .....

Ana Navarro‏
Verified account
#@ananavarro 12h
12 hours ago
My colleagues & I get this daily. Trump's anti-press/CNN tweets are not funny to me b/c i know there's a lot of angry wack-jobs out there.

NOTE...all social media right now regardless of who it is... is deeply involved in the ongoing Russian non linear info war against the US and anyone who pushes back on Trump and or Russia....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 08:44 AM
Whoa...sanity has arrived in Russia.....question is...is it propaganda or the "Truth".......

Today one Russian paper warns of an economic "apocalypse". Another advises that to save the economy Moscow must "stop military escapades".

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 08:59 AM
First Draft @firstdraftnews
Checkout the forensics feature in FD partners @InVID_EU's new verification browser extension powered by @RevealEU
https://goo.gl/Fo8i73

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2017, 02:34 PM
Documents appear to offer fresh evidence Russia's Kaspersky is tied to spy agency :
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article159342929.html#…

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 04:11 AM
When one does an analysis of Russian non linear warfare one tends to not focus on Russian crime groups and how they are intertwined into Russia non linear warfare and Russian cyber warfare...

CRIMINTERN: HOW THE KREMLIN USES RUSSIA’S CRIMINAL NETWORKS IN EUROPE
Mark Galeotti
http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR208_-_CRIMINTERM_-_HOW_RUSSIAN_ORGANISED_CRIME_OPERATES_IN_EUROPE02. pdf

Quote in the article that one needs to fully understand.....

"In Russia we have power and protection...in Europe we have wealth and comfort"........

This quote also applies to the US....especially now in the Trump Russian connections investigation.....

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mueller-probe-could-draw-focus-to-russian-crime-operations/ar-BBDLoDX?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp


WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has long warned that Russian organized crime posed a threat to democratic institutions, including "criminally linked oligarchs" who might collude with the Russian government to undermine business competition.
Those concerns, ever-present if not necessarily always top priorities, are front and center once more.
An ongoing special counsel investigation is drawing attention to Russian efforts to meddle in democratic processes, the type of skullduggery that in the past has relied on hired hackers and outside criminals. It's not clear how much the probe by former FBI Director Robert Mueller will center on the criminal underbelly of Moscow, but he's already picked some lawyers with experience fighting organized crime. And as the team looks for any financial entanglements of Trump associates and relationships with Russian officials, its focus could land again on the intertwining of Russia's criminal operatives and its intelligence services.


Something that is often overlooked in Russian non linear warfare is the key Russian "soft power"......money..."black money"....and plenty of it.....

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 08:23 AM
Ukraine police prevent second cyber attack: minister
http://reut.rs/2soSeme


Avakov said on Facebook the latest attack was launched at 1.40 p.m. Kiev time (1040 GMT) and was scheduled to peak at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT).
He said that, until 3 p.m. (1200 GMT), cyber police blocked the mailing and activation of the virus from the servers of the information system M.E.Doc.
"The attack was stopped. The servers were removed along with cyber criminals impact's traces obviously rooted from Russian Federation," Avakov said.

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 09:05 AM
When one does an analysis of Russian non linear warfare one tends to not focus on Russian crime groups and how they are intertwined into Russia non linear warfare and Russian cyber warfare...

CRIMINTERN: HOW THE KREMLIN USES RUSSIA’S CRIMINAL NETWORKS IN EUROPE
Mark Galeotti
http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR208_-_CRIMINTERM_-_HOW_RUSSIAN_ORGANISED_CRIME_OPERATES_IN_EUROPE02. pdf

Quote in the article that one needs to fully understand.....

"In Russia we have power and protection...in Europe we have wealth and comfort"........

This quote also applies to the US....especially now in the Trump Russian connections investigation.....

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mueller-probe-could-draw-focus-to-russian-crime-operations/ar-BBDLoDX?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Something that is often overlooked in Russian non linear warfare is the key Russian "soft power"......money..."black money"....and plenty of it.....

The Russian Laundromat

https://www.reportingproject.net/therussianlaundromat/russian-laundromat.php

It may be the biggest money-laundering operation in Eastern Europe -- a virtual laundromat operating through banks and companies connected to powerful people in the region.



Between 2010 and early 2014, organized criminals and corrupt politicians in Russia moved US$ 20 billion in dirty funds through this laundromat’s complex cleanse-and-spin cycle made up of dozens of offshore companies, banks, fake loans, and proxy agents. The process was then certified as clean by judges in the tiny Republic of Moldova. The newly cleaned funds were then spread across Europe.

Now law enforcement and prosecutors in Moldova are investigating the system.

AND a large amount of that now "clean Russian money" resides in the US....

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 09:54 AM
Here are the top contributors under the #CNNBlackmail hashtag. Mostly the same crew involved in other bot-pushed pro-Trump hashtags.

These accounts often interact with tweets pushed onto Twitter from Russian bots...carrying most of the time the same exact wording .....and or use the Russian tweets to create a "large retwitter storm" to drive a particular hashtag....

NOTE:
The twitter account ELEVEN_GOP is a Russian controlled English language bot that was up to a few days ago titled TEN_GOP and was deeply involved in supporting Le Pen twitter accounts in pushing leaked Marcon hacked emails into France from the US...just before the French election.

APPEARS Twitter suspended TEN_GOP with no warning..... looks like @Support discovered it was a Russian controlled account appearing to be a US account....

BTW..the chart below is a good indicator of the "human2 driving a lot of the proTrump alt right ie white nationalist messaging and proTrump hashtags and in this case...driving the hashtag CNNBlackmail.....

BTW....Posobiec and Cernovich drove the hashtag Syrianhoax which was basically retweeting Russian statements that the sarin gas attack as a fake and if real it came from the rebels...they practically used Russian tweets word for word.....

NOTE:
Someone must have the twitter account for SoS Tillerson under their control ...cannot believe he would be retweeting CNNBlackmail....

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 10:24 AM
Reposting this article as it gives more insight into Russian troll activities....

"There are so many levels of fakery you get lost"

Effort to Expose Russia's Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation.

https://nyti.ms/1Z8sjJw

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 10:49 AM
Ukraine police prevent second cyber attack: minister
http://reut.rs/2soSeme

This is big. M.E.Doc CEO says hackers inserted backdoor into update, any computers on the same network as their product now compromised.


Confirms now that this malware attack was actually an undercover true hacking attack using a coding backdoor in a software update....and it confirms then that inside that malware was LSADump...a hacker tool sued to get passwords and domain controller information....

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 05:00 PM
Infowars is an interesting blogsite that attempts to be a "news site"......AND is tied into the Russian trolls and bots that push fake news and "narratives supporting Trump"....

Alex Jones who runs it is a master of conspiracy theories...."Pizzagate....9/11 was done by the US government.....etc........

Alex Jones during his Houston TX divorce hearing defined himself as a "performance artist" not a journalist when asked his profession.....

Infowars picks up and uses an extensive amount of Russian troll comments and fake news stories coming out of Russian media accounts....

Alex Jones‏
Verified account
@RealAlexJones

Ask yourself: why is the establishment so terrified of Alex Jones?
- https://www.infowars.com/dont-watch-this-video/#… #infowars

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 05:06 PM
"Most people in the government that are influenced [by Russia] don't even know they are being manipulated".

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2017, 05:38 PM
Russian Embassy says "#Sweden just makes up stuff & accuses #Russia! @Forsvarsmakten begs to differ, provides details
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/almedalen/article21056791.ab#

Diplomatic relations at a low: #Russia rudely mocks #Sweden's @Forsvarsmakten @SweMFA

"Clearly you have amnesia!"

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 06:51 AM
An interesting new form of Russian non linear warfare is now being seen....

New report by @anticorruption reveals Russian corporate lobbying efforts in EU, from UK to Poland, Germany to Spain.
http://transparency.org.ru/special/lobbying/docs/report-en.pdf#

Russia is throwing everything they have into lifting the sanctions which actually are seriously hurting Russia....regardless of what Putin says...as long as they are in place Russian economic development is virtually ZERO right now....

As long as Russia is a two product economy oil and gas...they will never economically advance....THUS the heavy use of non linear warfare ie propaganda and hacking

Oil is falling badly now.....AND

"Renaissance Capital estimates that foreign investors pulled $83M out of the Russian stock market in five days"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/07/05/hedge-funds-give-up-on-russia/amp/#

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 07:35 AM
An interesting new form of Russian non linear warfare is now being seen....

New report by @anticorruption reveals Russian corporate lobbying efforts in EU, from UK to Poland, Germany to Spain.
http://transparency.org.ru/special/lobbying/docs/report-en.pdf#

Russia is throwing everything they have into lifting the sanctions which actually are seriously hurting Russia....regardless of what Putin says...as long as they are in place Russian economic development is virtually ZERO right now....

As long as Russia is a two product economy oil and gas...they will never economically advance....THUS the heavy use of non linear warfare ie propaganda and hacking.

Oil is falling badly now.....

Headline in Germany's leading business newspaper: "We share German priorities." Author is Putin, not Trump.

SO Russia is not getting involved in the internal German elections.....yes they are...just not only via hacking and fake news....

NOW Putin is suddenly a "free trader" supporting Merkel against Trump......

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 07:44 AM
An interesting twist in the Russian infowarfare terms....of sanctions now being protectionism....

Ahead of G20 summit, Putin calls sanctions 'covert form' of protectionism
http://reut.rs/2ushWaS

THIS ties into the German newspaper statement of Putin supporting "free trade"...mentioned previously.

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 08:03 AM
An interesting comment from another growing authoritarian leader....


Erdogan to Die Zeit: ``I don't believe there is such a thing as `independent media' anywhere in the world.''
http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2017-07/recep-tayyip-erdogan-g20-summit-interview-english#


Might in fact be correct if one views any MSM to be Corporate owned and thus answering to the 90 day profit cycles and how much money they are making vs. say social media journalism that does not have such limitations...and has the speed factor and does not answer to a corporate owner....

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 08:16 AM
Reference Russian hack of Ukraine.....

New: the hackers linked to #NotPetya ransomware decrypted a file for us, proving they can unlock at least some files
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/evdxj4/notpetya-ransomware-hackers-decrypt-file#

BUT still largely unable to decrypt all files that it encrypted....

They still sidestep why they wiped the MBF on a large number of computers which is viewed as a destructive attack and why they are saying they will return all ransom payments when they did not make much to begin with....

IMHO they are trying to act like an beginner hack not a state sponsored attack....KEY the deliberate MBF wipe and the use of LSADump to record passwords and domain servers...and then the exfil of that data...for future hacking use.....NOR using a backdoor installed on a key updated software product.....

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 08:31 AM
Russian FM is apparently in "an altered info warfare state of reality" on their bombing of Aleppo......

MFA Russia #
Verified account
#@mfa_russia 5m

#Zakharova: We have requested that @CNN accurately cover the case of Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh

Zakharova: The lack of a clear response from @CNN makes us think that CNN journalists consciously distorted the facts

#Zakharova: We still expect @CNN to openly admit its mistake and prepare a retraction

CNN...we stand by the report and request Russian FM to prove they did not drop the bombs on his home even with existing video footage of Russian aircraft flying overhead at the time of the bombing and no other AF in the area other than RUAF.....on that particular day RUAF flew five strike missions over Aleppo....

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 09:58 AM
Not relevant to thread, refer to non-Russian matters and as per notice elsewhere removed.

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 05:51 PM
Deleted

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2017, 06:06 PM
This thread title is as follows....

Russian Info, Cyber and Disinformation

To ignore and delete information that indicates that a large number of Americans are actively working in that Russian effort for whatever reasons and then push that Russian info warfare, cyber and disinformation on to other Americans in order to influence their decisions and actions using all forms of media is an interesting development....even for SWJ.

BTW...info posted here was provided to Twitter Support which has since deleted specific accounts that were proven to have been Russian even though they claimed to be US accounts....and were using perfect US English....

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 07:37 AM
Media report that #Russia has ~150 intelligence operatives deployed in the US:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/06/politics/russia-steps-up-spying-efforts-after-election/index.html?sr=twCNN070617russia-steps-up-spying-efforts-after-election0610PMStory#


Alleged largest increase in over 20 years.....matches the massive increase in Europe where in Prague you can run into one every mile or so....as Prague has become the central Russian spy capital....

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 07:42 AM
I am getting tired of reposting this critical article done by one of the best Russian researchers....

Crimintern: How the Kremlin uses Russia’s criminal networks in Europe

By Mark Galeotti
18th April, 2017
http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summary/crimintern_how_the_kremlin_uses_russias_criminal_n etworks_in_europe

AND the US Russian crime gang connections just keep on keeping on....

Russia-born dealmaker linked to Trump assists FBI money laundering probe
https://www.ft.com/content/159eb2d8-6162-11e7-8814-0ac7eb84e5f1#

BTW in the last year FT has done some really good investigative journalism on this topic...sad is that a lot of it is behind a paywall....

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 07:52 AM
Someone's phishing US nuke power stations. So far, no boom.....

German Federal Security Services are taking this as a serious Russian APT28 warning to the West after their four attacks on the Baltics and Ukraine power grids....they see it as a not so subtle form of escalation....

BTW...the recent again from Russia malware hacking attack against Ukraine focused on power plants, power grid, fuel (gas) stations, and water/natural gas supply infrastructure and anything that basically used a computer...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/07/someones_phishing_us_nuke_power_stations_so_far_no _kaboom/?mt=1499413546138

Also from NYTs....
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/technology/nuclear-plant-hack-report.html


Don't panic, but attackers are trying to phish their way into machines in various US power facilities, including nuclear power station operators.
It seems so far whoever behind the campaign has tried phishing and watering-hole attacks, but haven't got beyond corporate networks (which in critical infrastructure should be on separate networks from the operational systems).
The New York Times got wind of the intrusion attempts, getting a look at a joint Department of Homeland Security/FBI report.
The money quote from the story appears to be this:
There is no indication that hackers were able to jump from their victims’ computers into the control systems of the facilities, nor is it clear how many facilities were breached.
Spokespeople for one of the targets, the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation (in charge of a facility near Burlington in Kansas) said it maintained separate networks for corporate and operations systems, so there was no risk to its power stations.

BTW....what is not being talked about is that in two US nuclear sites the recent malware attack unleashed on Ukraine actually made it into the business computers of the two nuclear power companies....

BUT here is the problem not talked about...the malware contained a LSADump hack tool designed to collect all passwords and domain controllers allowing for later successful hacks unless ALL passwords were immediately changed and ALL domain servers reconfigured....

AND where is again that Trump promised US cyber defense plan he stated would be available in 90 days....nowhere to be seen ...we are now 160 days in and still nothing to be seen AND yet he is worried about alleged voter fraud that happens less than the number of Americans hit yearly by lighting........

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 08:35 AM
Someone's phishing US nuke power stations. So far, no boom.....

German Federal Security Services are taking this as a serious Russian APT28 warning to the West after their four attacks on the Baltics and Ukraine power grids....they see it as a not so subtle form of escalation....

BTW...the recent again from Russia malware hacking attack against Ukraine focused on power plants, power grid, fuel (gas) stations, and water/natural gas supply infrastructure and anything that basically used a computer...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/07/someones_phishing_us_nuke_power_stations_so_far_no _kaboom/?mt=1499413546138

Also from NYTs....
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/technology/nuclear-plant-hack-report.html



BTW....what is not being talked about is that in two US nuclear sites the recent malware attack unleashed on Ukraine actually made it into the business computers of the two nuclear power companies....

BUT here is the problem not talked about...the malware contained a LSADump hack tool designed to collect all passwords and domain controllers allowing for later successful hacks unless ALL passwords were immediately changed and ALL domain servers reconfigured....

AND where is again that Trump promised US cyber defense plan he stated would be available in 90 days....nowhere to be seen ...we are now 160 days in and still nothing to be seen AND yet he is worried about alleged voter fraud that happens less than the number of Americans hit yearly by lighting........

"We don't pay attention to such anonymous fakes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-07/russians-are-said-to-be-suspects-in-hacks-involving-nuclear-site#

Germans are saying Russian state sponsored APT28 or the GRU hacking division...left their digital fingerprints all over this....

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 08:39 AM
BLUF.....

US tech companies "actively didn't care/want to know" about Russian propaganda or disinformation until 2016 election meddling AND still do not really care as many simply forget they are driven by advertising income and the number of views are what drives them......even if those views are based on fake news, propaganda, disinformation.....via trolling and automated bot nets.....the more the "views" the more the advertising revenue....

AND secondly, in the case of Twitter the largest single shareholder is a Saudi and the largest single investor is a Russian oligarch....at 1.3B USDs....

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 12:58 PM
When one discusses Russian non linear warfare especially cyber and information warfare coupled with Russian black money softpower....it is good to go back to the basics again with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and their military annexation of Crimea....

It is all intertwined even with the Russian hacking and influence operations during the US 2016 election....

War in Ukraine Was Years in the Making
By Vera Zimmerman
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/war-in-ukraine-was-years-in-the-making#.WV6PObKsPiY.twitter


In a new comprehensive study, “The World Hybrid War: Ukrainian Forefront,” experts from Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies (NISS) examine the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the context of the global security crisis.

In the monograph, they conceptualize hybrid war, trace its origins, look at the evolution of Russia’s revanchist ambitions, single out Ukraine’s vulnerabilities and its response, and advocate a new strategy. The authors aim to share Ukraine’s experience of hybrid war with Western readers and leave no doubt about the true nature of Russia’s goals.


It is a long read (175 pages) but well worth it as it is a comprehensive analysis done by Ukraine itself...
http://www.niss.gov.ua/public/File/book_2017/GW_engl_site.pdf

If the posting on the eight phases of Russia non linear warfare had not been deleted then one could see how this long study parallels the Russian non linear warfare doctrine including Russian cyber and information warfare..

SOURCES OF HYBRID WAR
Chapter 1. RUSSIA’S GEOPOLITICAL MESSAGE OF DEFIANCE .................. 13 1.1. Confrontation with the West .................................................. .......... 13 1.2. Victims of Russian hybrid aggression ..............................................20 1.3. Strategic purposes of Russian hybrid aggression against Ukraine .....25
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF RUSSIA’S HYBRID WAR AGAINST UKRAINE
Chapter 2. WAR ON HOMELAND FRONTLINES ............................................. 35 2.1. Instruments of political influence .................................................. .. 35 2.2. Media support of hybrid war .................................................. ..........40
Chapter 3. SPECIAL AND DIPLOMATIC OPERATIONS .................................. 45 3.1. Russian secret services activities in Ukraine ..................................... 45 3.2. Diplomatic cover for hybrid aggression ............................................ 52
Chapter 4. ECONOMIC DIMENSION OF HYBRID AGGRESSION .................59 4.1. Trade warfare as an instrument of economic pressure ......................59 4.2. ”Energy weapon” in the context of hybrid war .................................68
HYBRID WAR AND HYBRID WORLD
Chapter 5. WORLD REACTION TO THE RUSSIAN HYBRID WARFARE AGAINST UKRAINE .................................................. ....................... 81 5.1. Role of international security organizations and forums ................... 81 5.2. Economic sanctions policy .................................................. ............88 5.3. Activation of radical and anti-Europe forces in support of Russia ... 100 5.4. Minsk process in the light of world politics .....................................104

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 01:51 PM
Russian non linear warfare especially on the hacking side has a nasty habit of including "fake documents to spread Doubt and Distrust" on individuals and or organizations hacked by Russian state sponsored groups and then released via Wikileaks....

REMEMBER Russian propaganda works on a concept of the 6Ds....
Distort....Distract.....Dismiss....Deflect ALL designed to create Doubt and Distrust....

They did this in the DNC hack, the Podesta hack, and the French President Marcon hack....and now WHY MSM...they are attempting to get US MSM to print articles using these fake Russian Trump NSA documents and then destroy their creditability.....who is doing this is currently being investigated.

Maddow to news orgs: beware of forged Trump Russia documents!


Rachel Maddow explains how an ostensible top secret NSA document submitted through the show's inbox is likely a fake, and points out the perils of such forgeries to news organizations trying to report out important stories like the Trump Russia story.
Duration: 21:06


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-to-news-orgs-heads-up-for-hoaxes-985491523709?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_lw

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2017, 06:41 PM
Immediate Russian propaganda being put to work out of the Putin Trump meeting...and the US response to this is what again????

They do not even know it exists as they pay no attention to Russian media sources....AND there is no Russian info war ongoing against the US??

Kremlin pool reporter posted this image of Trump handing Crimea to Putin.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2017, 11:19 AM
Have been saying the same thing over and over here but hey that was a "soap box"...

EU Mythbusters‏
Verified account
#@EUvsDisinfo

Pro-Trump bots were used in the French campaign against Macron. Who could have had the interest?

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kwak5/the-same-twitter-bots-that-helped-trump-tried-to-sink-macron-researcher-says?utm_campaign=global

AND between the US and French elections they remained largely silent...why is that?? AND who controls them and for what purpose??

Election 2016 Belongs to the Twitter Bots
Daniel Oberhaus
Nov 7 2016, 7:50pm
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/78kmky/election-2016-belongs-to-the-twitter-bots

davidbfpo
07-09-2017, 01:18 PM
This thread has clearly overlapped with others, especially the allegations that Russia has interfered / intervened in the US election process and a large number (124 plus) of posts have now be moved to the Trump thread, which will remain closed. Only a small number have been deleted which were way beyond the Forum's ToR.

SWJ's Forum is not for political discussion. We aim to be an 'online discussion board', not for one individual(s) to dominate.

Clearly this thread has been used by one member to post, he has now announced publicly that he has stopped posting. This thread will now be closed.

If members wish to comment on developments in the USA, that refer to Russian Info & Cyber Operations, a new thread can be opened.